POCATELLO — On a beautiful and sunny Friday morning, the Pocatello Police Department and its leadership, along with members of the community, unveiled a new D.A.R.E. car that is inspired by the A-10 military plane.

Embodying the attack aircraft, the front sides of the D.A.R.E. vehicle has shark teeth war paint, which are influenced by the decals displayed on the noses of World War II planes and the A-10 “Warthog.” The vehicle also has a faded olive-green patina that covers its entirety, along with portions of the car that look like the riveted metal sections of a vintage airplane.

A host of sponsors and other organizations cover the D.A.R.E. car’s tail end, with a litany of small details and features that are easy to miss upon first glance.

Zachary Bartschi, a Pocatello police lieutenant who has been heavily involved in overseeing the D.A.R.E. program, recently spoke with the Idaho State Journal and touched on the youth program, its future and what it means to be a police officer within the Gate City.

“We’re here for the D.A.R.E. car unveiling and we’ve had the opportunity to wrap our D.A.R.E. car in a unique way to bring attention to drug and alcohol prevention and we’re excited,” Bartschi said. “We have four D.A.R.E. officers that work in their middle schools and then they teach D.A.R.E. in their filter elementary schools. But the unique thing that we bring for the city is we also have a four-week summer program where we teach D.A.R.E. and leadership principles for middle schools.”

Bartschi continued, “We’re actually doing two different sets of groups this year. Sgt. Jackson has recently talked to the media about our summer leadership program for high school aged youth, where we’re talking about leadership and D.A.R.E. principles still, but we’re also talking about what law enforcement does and how we go out there and how we want to make a positive impact in the community.”

Certain aspects of the design were inspired, in part, by the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25’s “Take Flight” tagline that was utilized after the COVID-19 pandemic. The school district, along with entities such as the Pocatello City Council, Safe Salt Supply, Idaho Central Credit Union, Wilk’s Funeral Home and many others made the new D.A.R.E. car a possibility with their support and contributions.

“This could not be done without the power of relationships,” said Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei. “Thank you to Sgt. Jackson, Lt. Bartschi and all the D.A.R.E. officers that made this happen that are in our schools serving every day and building those relationships with those students, and the behind-the-scenes people, the sponsors, the City Council and the members of our community.”

Law enforcement will be honored across the nation this week during National Police Week and the timing couldn’t be more poignant after Ada County Sheriff’s Deputy Tobin Bolter recently lost his life in the line of duty last month.

“Law enforcement and police officers no matter where they are in the state, or the country are a tight knit community,” Bartschi said. “We feel impacted, especially when someone is injured or someone is killed in the line of duty. And in the last several weeks, we’ve had one officer in Idaho and one officer in Utah that were killed in line of duty. It really affects.”

On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, Pocatello police will send officers to the police officer memorial that is located outside the police officer training academy in Meridian, with honor guard in attendance, in honor of National Police Week.

“I know that Chief Schei personally is going to go as well,” Bartschi said. “I know that for us, it’s important that we respect those who gave their lives in the line of duty and that we also carry on and do our best to take care of our communities and make sure that we carry on the torch from here.”

Bartschi expressed excitement for the upcoming new summer programs and contributes some of the local police department’s success to the community and its support and adoration for law enforcement.

“One of the things that I really appreciate is that this community is such a great community to be in,” Bartschi said. “There’s a lot of law enforcement around the nation that seem to have struggles but this community actually shows a great deal of appreciation for police officers, which I always appreciate. We often have people that give us high fives, or say thank you for your service, or things like that. This is a great community to be in, to serve in and to raise a family in and that’s why that’s why we stay here and that’s why we continue to serve and do what we can.”